The rules behind FR.

Season ratings have no floor or ceiling. Calculations retain full precision; displayed scores round to two decimal places. Historical expansion is in progress. Listing a team or year does not mean its rating has been calculated.

Fan-history rating

90% of the average season score + 10% of the best season score + consistency bonus. A single selected season displays its season score. Missing seasons block a full-range rating; they never count as zero. Reviewed years without a played season are excluded.

Consistency bonus

At least five completed played seasons are required. Final record must have more wins than losses to qualify as winning.

Regular-season foundation

Conference title and postseason games are excluded from this record. Shorter schedules use 12-game equivalent wins and linear interpolation.

Opponent quality and location

Use the published final AP ranking. Each cell below is home / neutral / away. Apply to regular-season and postseason games and conference championship wins. Conference championship losses receive no opponent-quality deduction; their existing margin and rivalry rules still apply.

Designated rivalry modifier: ranked win +1.5; unranked win +0.5; loss −1.5. The combined quality and rivalry category has no upper or lower limit. Every calculated game adjustment counts. A conference title rivalry still receives the rivalry modifier. Regular-season blowouts have no separate margin penalty in this version.

Conference tiers · v0.3

Unranked P4 wins add 0.5; unranked G6 wins subtract 1 from the foundation-based reward. Ranked wins retain their existing quality and rivalry rewards in every conference. No extra conference-game bonus is stacked. Affiliation follows the actual season: former power leagues retain historical status, including Pac-12 through 2023 and the AQ American in 2013. Recognized power-equivalent independents follow the historical schedule policy; other independents and unknown affiliations keep the neutral adjustment. Non-FBS rewards and loss deductions are unchanged.

Conference success

P4 / historical power conference championship: +10. G6 / historical group conference championship: +6. A loss retains the existing +3 appearance credit before its margin deduction. Championship loss deductions: 1–8 points: −0.25; 9–16: −0.75; 17–24: −1.5; 25+: −2.5. A recognized conference champion without a title game receives the same tier reward (+10 power / +6 group), without a duplicate appearance bonus.

Postseason

Ordinary bowl: win +4, loss −2. Major non-playoff bowl: win +7, loss −2. A major bowl winner finishing AP 3–4 receives a 9-point postseason package. Quality/location adjustments still apply separately.

Playoff appearance +2. Wins: first round +2; quarterfinal +5; semifinal +7; final +10. Byes do not earn win points. Replace overlapping credits with one achievement package: national champion 26; title-game runner-up 16 before final-loss penalty; semifinal exit 9 before loss penalty.

Playoff loss deductions: 1–8 points: −1; 9–16: −1.5; 17–24: −2; 25+: −3. A shutout adds −1. These replace the ordinary bowl loss deduction.

BCS title-game runners-up use the same16-point achievement package before the same margin/shutout loss deduction. A verified BCS title game is never also counted as an ordinary bowl. Recognized split AP/BCS champions each receive26. Published BCS.1 policies preserve documented on-field outcomes and contemporary honors despite later vacatur.

Individual honors

Heisman +5, outside the other-awards cap. Eligible annual national player awards +1 each, AP first-team All-Americans +0.5 each; those two categories combined cap at 5. Conference honors, weekly awards, other All-America selectors and coaching awards do not qualify.

Earlier-era policies still under review

Heritage.1 publishes1960–1979 with contemporary AP/coaches split champions, smaller polls and pre-bowl poll timing. A recognized pre-bowl champion retains its26-point title package and receives−2 if it loses its subsequent bowl. Lower-division equivalents and pre-1950 policies remain under review. Historical treatment of a tie is half a win in schedule normalization and zero opponent/rival adjustment. No lower-division season is published under major/FBS rules by default.

The 2025.1 data release calculates all 136 teams that played FBS football in 2025, with the explicit awards and rivalry registries linked below. The live formula is v0.3; corrections to early hand-calculated examples are documented. I-A/FBS seasons from1936 through2025 now have full component breakdowns under the published BCS.1, historical.1 and2025.1 catalogs. The initial Indiana/Oklahoma State estimates in this period have been replaced with the same input-based calculations used for all programs. Ratings now reach1936 under the early.1 catalog. Sourced unplayed seasons are excluded; non-major years are outside the current national-major FR policy. Source and membership corrections appear in the historical catalogs. Read the 2025 catalogs and corrections ↗

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Formula v0.3 update

All 9,115 published historical team seasons and the current-season team scores use the updated opponent and championship tiers. Ranked Wins lists include conference, nonconference and postseason victories using verified entering AP ranks, including dated preseason polls.

Previous v0.2 update

All published seasons were recalculated under the same rules: game adjustments are uncapped in both directions, and conference championship wins receive opponent-quality credit. Championship achievement remains26; honors remain capped. No new opponent-quality penalty is added for conference championship losses. Fan-history aggregation and consistency bonuses are unchanged.

Download archived v0.1 season ratings ↗ · Archived v0.1 calculation engine ↗

Future formula changes

The season inputs are stored separately from the scoring rules. Changing a weight or policy can be followed by recalculating every season and fan history, then publishing a labeled formula version. Comparisons must use one consistent formula version. A public settings editor is not available yet.